They have just started to deliver the first units and the Mercedes-AMG One It has already turned into a unicorn. AMG, the high-performance division of Mercedes, has confirmed that The development of another hypercar with the heart of an F1 and suitable for driving on the street does not enter his plans. The reason? We find it in the strict regulations related to emissions.
As we said, the first deliveries of the Mercedes-AMG One are already taking place… almost six years after meeting the prototype that served as a starting point: the Project One, which was presented at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. 275 units of a car that is the fastest at the Nürburgring, Hockenheim (with the design of a GP) and Red Bull Ring. Despite its price (2.5 million euros), they have been sold out for a long time.
The arrival of Euro 7
At the end of this decade, the Euro 7 regulations will come into force and the chances of seeing another road car with an F1 engine are slim to none. It should be remembered that the Mercedes-AMG One is powered by four electric motors that support the 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline V6, a block that is based on that of the W07 car that won the F1 World Championship in 2016.
Steffen Jastrow, Affalterbach’s director of vehicle development, spoke to CarSales and confirmed that there will be no direct successor due to strict emissions regulations: he admitted that it’s hard to get the Mercedes-AMG One to meet WLTP Cycle standards.
He did not want to say that a new hypercar will never arrive, but he did confess that there are no plans for it yet: “Will there be one based on an F1 engine? I think there are no chances. If someone wanted to bet on this formula, this was the only moment: the one we have chosen to do it”. Maybe then we won’t see anything similar to the aston martin valkyrie, which was developed in collaboration with Red Bull Racing to have technology derived from F1.
And an electric hypercar?
Affalterbach’s director of vehicle development was much more optimistic about the option of creating an electric hypercar because, according to him, it would be easier to certify such vehicles. It should not be forgotten that one of the three platforms that Mercedes is working on is the ‘AMG.EA’, which is being developed from scratch and will be intended for electric sports cars.
It would not be the first time that AMG works with this concept. Approximately ten years ago, the brand shaped nine Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive. An electric powered by four motors, which, together, developed a power of 751 CV and had a maximum torque of 1,000 Nm. And what’s more, with the Vision AMG Concept, Mercedes opened a window into the future of electric performance.